About us

A foundation built on showing up

The Schaffa Foundation is a registered Australian charity supporting the most vulnerable people in our community. We run Street Buffet, feeding people experiencing homelessness and hardship every Sunday at Woolloomooloo.

What started with one man, a folding table and a bag of unwanted clothes has grown into a weekly service, a network of donor kitchens and a set of programs designed to give people a genuine stepping stone — not just a meal, but confidence and skills for the long haul.

Registered Australian charity

The Schaffa Foundation is registered with the ACNC and its reporting is up to date. ABN 54 612 158 755.

Verify on the ACNC register

Our history

It started with one man who had been there himself

Ian Schaffa was homeless at fifteen, sleeping on trains for the best part of three years. He found his way out through martial arts and went on to fight professionally. Then he went back.

2009
A bag of clothes, and a queue for aftershave
Ian took unwanted clothes down to Woolloomooloo and was shaken by how many people were there. When he sprayed some aftershave, a single-file line formed for a turn. He kept coming back, first with supermarket sandwiches, then pizza, sitting and eating alongside people rather than serving from behind a table.
2015
Street Buffet becomes real
With co-founder Joce Santa Maria, the idea took its name and its shape: everyone brings a plate and everyone sits together, the way you would at Christmas. It was registered as a charity the same year. Thirty people came the first week. The next week, sixty. Then a hundred and twenty.
2016
Sixty volunteers, and a Christmas for 320
The team grew to around sixty regulars, the youngest three years old and the oldest in their seventies. At the Christmas service that year, 320 people were fed, with the then NSW Premier among the volunteers on the table.
2023
Maroubra opens
A second service launched outside Ian's gym in Maroubra, meeting a different need again: more women, more single mums, more families caught between rent, fuel and food. The aim, as Ian describes it, is to give someone one hour of optimism a week. Fifty-two hours a year.
2025
Maroubra service concludes
After two years, the Maroubra service ended in June 2025 due to funding and capacity. Thank you to Ian's gym, the volunteers and everyone who showed up there — the need does not go away, and it is one we hope to return to when we can.
Now
One table, every Sunday, 100,000+ meals
Woolloomooloo, week in and week out. The hardest part has never been the cooking. It is not knowing whether the food and the volunteers will be there. That is exactly what the needs board on this site is built to fix.

The dream we’re working towards

From a Sunday meal to a steady job

For sixteen years, Street Buffet has been funded the hard way. Our founder works scaffolding through the week — long days, and a back that pays for it — so that the trays are full every Sunday. That’s the kind of person who started this. But it isn’t a way to build something that lasts.

So here’s the dream we’re quietly working towards: a social enterprise — a café or food truck — that employs people with lived experience of homelessness and hardship. A place where the meal isn’t the end of the help, but the start of a wage, a reference, and a reason to be somewhere every morning.

Real jobs, real wages

Paid, supported work for people rebuilding after homelessness — not charity, but a genuine start.

Funding that lasts

Trading income that helps sustain the Sunday service — so it never again rests on one person’s back.

Dignity through work

The same standard we hold on Sundays — no judgement, everyone welcome — carried into a workplace.

We’re honest about where this is: it’s a vision, not yet a venture. We’re learning what it takes — from the ground up, with guidance from organisations who’ve walked this road. If you fund, mentor, or build social enterprises, and this is the kind of thing you back, we’d love to talk.

Governance

Where your money goes

Street Buffet is volunteer-run. There are no salaries on the serving line, and this website, its hosting and its ongoing management are donated. That means donations go to food, groceries and essentials.

The Schaffa Foundation is registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, ABN 54 612 158 755, with reporting up to date. Registered office: 16 Lyon St, Mascot NSW 2020. You can verify our status and read our annual reporting directly on the ACNC charity register.